What happens when a political satirist tries to navigate a murky campaign finance landscape?

That’s a question Stephen Colbert has been trying to answer for months. The Comedy Central funnyman has been trying to establish his own super PAC, a quest that has yielded plenty of laughs, but also serious questions about the role of disclosure in an altered campaign finance landscape.

So Monday night, he turned to the Center for Responsive Politics for answers.

Center for Responsive Politics Executive Director Sheila Krumholz, went toe-to-toe with Colbert on his program, the Colbert Report, where she discussed the dangers of hidden money in politics.

“Money is power,” Krumholz told Colbert. “If it’s left unchecked, if it’s left scrutinized, it has greater power to skew policy away from the public interest.”

They also touched on whether he give puppies to the people who vote for the candidates supported by his super PAC.

Watch the full segment below, in which Colbert talks with Krumholz, as well as Sean Parnell, the president of the Center for Competitive Politics.

Earlier this year, Colbert launched an effort to form a super PAC — a political committee that is legally allowed to accept unlimited donations from corporations, unions and individuals. Traditional PACs have a $5,000 per year contribution limit and cannot accept money from corporate or union treasuries.

The new freedom comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling last year and other federal court decisions. Super PACs cannot donate the money they raise to candidates’ own campaigns, but instead, they are allowed to spend their funds on independent advertisements that expressly advocate for the election or defeat of federal candidates.

Colbert’s endeavors led him to personally visit the FEC in May, and last month, the regulatory agency approved his plan to form a super PAC — so long as airtime and production costs incurred by Colbert’s parent company of Viacom would be disclosed if the PAC was discussed or promoted on Colbert’s show.

Colbert’s super PAC is officially known as Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow. As of its most recent campaign finance filing with the FEC, it had not yet reported accepting any contributions.

On Monday night, Colbert scrolled a list of people he said had recently donated to his super PAC along the bottom of the screen — next to the word “heroes” — for the duration of the episode.

Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, please contact us.